CLEVELAND – It was a night of broken records.

The Cavaliers set a handful of team marks and equaled an NBA one Sunday, but also continued a season-long trend of not quickly burying an inferior opponent in their 114-89 win over the Los Angeles Clippers at Quicken Loans Arena.

With LeBron James knocking down shots from everywhere, each one longer than the one before it, the Cavaliers tied an NBA record for 3-pointers in a quarter (Milwaukee, March 28, 2006) by making 11 in the first period.

Those 11 3-pointers – in just 13 attempts (.846) – actually tied Cleveland’s team record for treys in a half. When Zydrunas Ilgauskas knocked one down from the right corner early in the second period, the mark the Cavaliers set March 5, 2008 against New York was history.

“Some of those were four and five feet behind the 3-point line,” Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. “Right now, I’ve got money that I’ll put them in the gym naked, nobody on them, and they probably can’t make 11 out of 13 from the same spots they made them in the game.”

James tied The Q record held by Minnesota’s James Robinson and Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson with 23 points in the first period, one off the team record for points in a quarter he’s set three times on the road.

The 25-year-old made his first seven shots, four of them from beyond the arc, and already had 18 points with 4:45 to go in the first quarter. Included was a 26-foot heat check that hit nothing but net.

“There’s no description for a player getting into a zone like that,” said James, who finished with 32 points and 11 assists. “It just happens. … You just know, and it feels great. Everything you put up feels like it’s going in.”

James hit another 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds left in the opening quarter, this one a 28-footer, to give Cleveland a 46-20 lead after one. That tied the team record for points in a quarter set Oct. 16, 1979 against Detroit and matched Nov. 10, 1992 versus Washington.

James finished the opening period 8-of-9 from the field, including 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. The five trifectas tied a team record for a quarter, while his 23 points – he also had three rebounds and three assists – were three more than the Clippers (20-27) had as a team.

“He gets in those modes where everything he shoots goes in,” Cleveland guard Daniel Gibson said. “That was definitely one of those times.”

The Cavaliers, who won their eighth straight game and improved their NBA-best record to 38-11 despite playing without guards Mo Williams (sprained shoulder) and Delonte West (fractured finger), made their first seven threes – four by James, two by Gibson and one by Anthony Parker. They wound up shooting .762 from the field in the opening quarter (16-of-21).

“In 30 years of being in the NBA, I have not seen a team shoot and make some of the shots they made,” Dunleavy said.

Things were going so well for the Cavaliers that Jamario Moon’s second-quarter pass from 19 feet away deflected off the hand of Clippers forward Rasual Butler about six feet from the basket and the ball came down straight through the hoop. The two points were credited to Anderson Varejao, the closest Cleveland player to the rim.

The Cavaliers led by 31 in the second period and were up 67-39 at halftime, at which time they were 13-of-17 from beyond the arc, but immediately allowed the Clippers back in the game with a 12-2 run to start the third period.

Los Angeles eventually got within 14 with 11:47 to go in the game, within 12 with nine minutes to play and within 11 on two occasions, the last with 6:52 left.

Sixteen seconds later, James dunked for his first hoop since the first quarter – he missed seven straight shots – and Shaquille O’Neal (16 points, 12 rebounds) followed with a pair of slams to put the game out of reach for good.

“I can’t say we put the pedal to the metal and really took it to them,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said of the third-quarter lapse. “But I understand there’s a human element to the game.”

That was reflected in the Cavaliers’ quarter scoring totals of 46, 21, 16 and 31. That means they had 37 points over the middle two periods, when they let off the gas, and 77 over the first and fourth, when they were focused.

James didn’t attempt a 3-pointer after the first period – Cleveland wound up 16-of-27 as a team – and was 2-of-11 from the field over the final three quarters.

Gibson had 14 points and made 4-of-5 3-pointers for the Cavaliers, while Moon (12), Jawad Williams (12) and Varejao (11) also scored in double figures.

Baron Davis had 30 for the Clippers, while DeAndre Jordan, starting in place of center Chris Kaman (sprained ankle), had 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.